‘Humans are all the same, religions does not make us different … we are all human and all born equal.’

by

Mohammed Soye, 33, comes from Buthidaung town in Rakhine State, Myanmar, which he fled 10 days ago.

I was a farmer in Buthidaung township, just like every other Rohingya there. We did not have the right to work or the right to education so we could not get jobs in the police, military or other smart offices. We had to work on the farms, or collect bamboo from the forest.

It was a hand-to-mouth existence, somehow, we survived even though we did not have any freedom – we just got through life, one day at a time.

Two weeks ago, the military and the local Buddhist community came into our village, started shooting at us and setting our houses on fire, one by one. My brother was shot in the side of his face and died there. The rest of us had to run, otherwise, we would have been killed as well.

We did not know where we were headed, we just kept walking for 10 days until we finally found Bangladesh.

My mother is 80 years old, paralysed and suffers from asthma, so I had to carry her the whole way. We crossed three rivers by boat while the rest we did on foot. Sometimes, we would come across the military who would start shooting at us and sometimes we would sleep in the forest where there were lots of wild animals.

So, there were many dangerous obstacles but determination kept us moving and eventually we crossed the border. I feel a lot more comfortable now that I am in Bangladesh. Back home, we could end up dead at any moment. Here, our life is safe.

But still, Bangladesh is totally new for us – we don’t know anything about the country, we are illiterate, and we don’t know what we are supposed to be doing here. So if peace returns to Myanmar, we would prefer to go back home, somewhere familiar.

I know the whole world is watching these images of the Rohingya crisis, yet no one is pressuring the Myanmar government to stop the violence being committed against us. Of course, they don’t actually want to find a solution, otherwise, we would have seen it already, but why aren’t international governments putting pressure on them.

My message to the world is that humans are all the same, religions do not make us different. Buddhists have flesh and blood, just like we do. So if they live peacefully and freely in Myanmar, why can’t we – we are all human and all born equal.

As told to Katie Arnold in Unchi Prank new refugee camp in Chittagong, Bangladesh.

This interview has been edited for clarity.

The plight of Myanmar’s Rohingya

An estimated more than 270,000, mainly women and children, have fled to Bangladeshin the last two weeks as a result of indiscriminate violence against civilian populations carried out by the Myanmar army.

The UN and other human rights organisations have warned that the mass exodus following killings, rapes, and burned villages are signs of “ethnic cleansing“, pleading for the international community to pressure Aung San Suu Kyi and her government to end the violence.

]]>http://dawatmedia.com/world-news/message-to-the-world-from-mohammed-a-rohingya/feed/0Pakistan and Iran have always cooperated against Baloch national interestshttp://dawatmedia.com/asia/pakistan-and-iran-have-always-cooperated-against-baloch-national-interests/
http://dawatmedia.com/asia/pakistan-and-iran-have-always-cooperated-against-baloch-national-interests/#respondSat, 09 Sep 2017 20:34:21 +0000http://dawatmedia.com/?p=1209Pakistan and Iran have always cooperated against Baloch national interests:

Hyrbyair Marri London:

Baloch leader and the head of Free Balochistan Movement Hyrbyair Marri said in a statement from London that the occupying states of Iran and Pakistan have always closely cooperated against the Baloch national cause in order to counter and eliminate the Baloch freedom struggle. He said that both states were equally involved in occupying Balochistan and committing gross human rights violations against the Baloch people, and in the past, both the states have jointly fought against the Baloch nation. However, due to the current religious, political and economic ambitions in the region the relationship between Iran and Pakistan has become temporarily strained. Because of this tension, both states have adopted dangerous policies against the Baloch national struggle. Both occupying states, through their infamous intelligence agencies, are trying to pit pro-freedom organisations against each other on both sides of occupied Balochistan. In some places, they have succeeded, in others, their evils designs have failed. Mr Marri said, regardless of whether you are struggling against Pakistan or Iran, if you get support from one of those occupying states and use it against your own Baloch brothers, who may be under the occupation of the other state, it is as if you are chopping off a part of your own body. The Baloch nation will suffer as a result of Baloch organisations fighting against each other. The civil war of Iraqi Kurdistan is a clear example, where the KPD and PUK have become proxies of neighbouring nations, Kurds were killed at the hands of their fellow Kurds. In three years’ time, more than eight thousand Kurds were martyrs and many people are still disappeared.

Baloch leader Hyrbyair Marri said in his statement that Balochistan is the land of the Baloch nation, the Baloch nation consists of various schools of thought, including Muslim, non-Muslim, secular, religious, socialist and moderate people, and all these people despite thinking differently and having different ideas can still play a vital role in the Baloch freedom struggle. It will be unwise to reject any Balochs’ struggle because of their different thinking and different ideologies. How is it possible that millions of people would follow one school of thought? He further added that the imperialist forces divided Balochistan into different parts and then divided each part into different areas, and now some narrow-minded Baloch organisations want to divide Balochistan and Baloch nation permanently, on an ideological basis – like how the German and Korean nations were divided only on an ideological basis. If this political attitude prevails then an independent Balochistan will be divided on the ideological and regional basis, where instead of gaining political power through the constitution and vote, religious leaders, socialists, atheists and tribal people will not hesitate to impose their ideologies on each other, to divide the independent Baloch state and nation furthermore. Hyrbyair Marri said, “The Baloch nation has never accepted the Goldsmith line drawn by colonial powers, and they will never accept it.” The Baloch political activists from both sides of occupied Balochistan can take refuge and live in any part of Balochistan. “If Baloch from Iranian occupied Balochistan takes refuge in Pakistan occupied Balochistan and vice versa, it does not matter, because Balochistan is one, and it is our shared country.” In fact, strategically planned appeal for asylum is not a danger to the Baloch national interest but accepting the artificial line (boundaries) and becoming mercenary soldiers of other states, and being used against the Baloch nation, endangers the entire Baloch national cause. In these circumstances, if activists from both sides of occupied Balochistan become proxies of their eternal enemies and work against each other, it will immensely damage the Baloch national interests. First, these two states will use Baloch against each other, and then after a minor improvement in their relationship, they will become allies and use the Baloch as a bargaining chip to please each other. Mr Marri said that freedom of any part of Balochistan will be the beginning of the independence of a United Balochistan, and that is why Baloch activists from both sides of occupied Balochistan should use their power and energy against the occupying states [Iran and Pakistan].

The North has tested a hydrogen bomb with “perfect success”, a jubilant newsreader announced.

SEOUL (AFP) – North Korea declared itself a thermonuclear power on Sunday, after carrying out a sixth nuclear test more powerful than any it has previously detonated, presenting President Donald Trump with a potent challenge.

The North has tested a hydrogen bomb with “perfect success”, a jubilant newsreader announced on state television, adding the device could be mounted on a missile.

The test was of a bomb with “unprecedently large power”, she said, and “marked a very significant occasion in attaining the final goal of completing the state nuclear force”.

The broadcaster showed an image of leader Kim Jong-Uns handwritten order for the test to be carried out at noon on September 3.

The announcement came after monitors measured a 6.3-magnitude tremor near the Norths main testing site, which South Korean experts said was five to six times stronger than that from the 10-kiloton test carried out a year ago.

Hours earlier, the North released images of Kim inspecting what it said was a miniaturised H-bomb that could be fitted onto an ICBM, at the Nuclear Weapons Institute.

Hydrogen bombs or H-bombs — also known as thermonuclear devices — are far more powerful than the relatively simple atomic weapons the North was believed to have tested so far.

Whatever the final figure for tests yield turned out to be, said Jeffrey Lewis of the armscontrolwonk website, it was “a staged thermonuclear weapon” which represents a significant advance in its weapons program.

Chinese monitors said they had detected a second quake shortly afterwards of 4.6 magnitude that could be due to a “collapse (cave in)”, suggesting the rock over the underground blast had given way.

Pyongyang has long sought the means to deliver an atomic warhead to the United States, its sworn enemy, and the test will infuriate Washington, Tokyo, Seoul, Beijing and others.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said ahead of the announcement that a test would be “absolutely unacceptable”.

South Korean President Moon Jae-In summoned the National Security Council for an emergency meeting and Seouls military raised its alert level.

Super explosive power

Pyongyang triggered a new ramping up of tensions in July, when it carried out two successful tests of an ICBM, the Hwasong-14, which apparently brought much of the US mainland within range.

It has since threatened to send a salvo of rockets towards the US territory of Guam, and last week fired a missile over Japan and into the Pacific, the first time time it has ever acknowledged doing so.

Trump has warned Pyongyang that it faces “fire and fury”, and that Washingtons weapons are “locked and loaded”.

Analysts believe Pyongyang has been developing weapons capability to give it a stronger hand in any negotiations with the US.

“North Korea will continue with their nuclear weapons programme unless the US proposes talks,” Koo Kab-Woo of Seouls University of North Korean Studies told AFP.

He pointed to the fact that Pakistan — whose nuclear programme is believed to have links with the Norths — conducted six nuclear tests in total, and may not have seen a need for any further blasts.

“If we look at it from Pakistans example, the North might be in the final stages” of becoming a nuclear state, he said.

Pictures of Kim at the Nuclear Weapons Institute showed the young leader, dressed in a black suit, examining a metal casing with a shape akin to a peanut shell.

The device was a “thermonuclear weapon with super explosive power made by our own efforts and technology”, KCNA cited Kim as saying, and “all components of the H-bomb were 100 percent domestically made”.

Actually mounting a warhead onto a missile would amount to a significant escalation on the Norths part, as it would create a risk that it was preparing an attack.

Failure of sanctions

The North carried out its first nuclear test in 2006, and successive blasts are believed to have been aimed at refining designs and reliability as well as increasing yield.

Its fifth detonation, in September last year, caused a 5.3 magnitude quake and according to Seoul had a 10-kiloton yield — still less than the 15-kiloton US device which destroyed Hiroshima in 1945.

The North Korean leadership says a credible nuclear deterrent is critical to the nations survival, claiming it is under constant threat from an aggressive United States.

It has been subjected to seven rounds of United Nations Security Council sanctions over its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes, but always insists it will continue to pursue them.

Atomic or “A-bombs” work on the principle of nuclear fission, where energy is released by splitting atoms of enriched uranium or plutonium encased in the warhead.

Hydrogen or H-bombs, also known as thermonuclear weapons, work on fusion and are far more powerful, with a nuclear blast taking place first to create the intense temperatures required.

No H-bomb has ever been used in combat, but they make up most of the worlds nuclear arsenals.

A Rohingya boy carries a child on his back and walks through rice fields after crossing over to the Bangladesh side on Sept. 1, 2017. (AP)

Reuters, Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh

Saturday, 2 September 2017

More than 2,600 houses have been burned down in Rohingya-majority areas of Myanmar’s northwest in the last week, the government said on Saturday, in one of the deadliest bouts of violence involving the Muslim minority in decades.

About 58,600 Rohingya have fled the violence into Bangladesh from Myanmar, according to UN refugee agency UNHCR, as aid workers there struggle to cope.

Myanmar officials have blamed group Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army for the burning of the homes.

The group claimed responsibility for coordinated attacks on security posts last week that prompted clashes and a large army counteroffensive.

But Rohingya fleeing to Bangladesh say a campaign of arson and killings by the Myanmar army is aimed at trying to force them out.

The treatment of Buddhist-majority Myanmar’s roughly 1.1 million Rohingya is the biggest challenge facing leader Aung San Suu Kyi, accused by Western critics of not speaking out for a minority that has long complained of persecution.

Pope Francis is decrying persecution of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar and praying they receive “full rights.”

The pontiff said on Sunday there was “sad news about the persecution of the religious minority of our Rohingya brothers.”

Thousands of Rohingya are trying to flee into Bangladesh after escalated deadly violence at home. Last week, Rohingya militants attacked police and border outposts, and security forces responded.

Francis asked the faithful in St. Peter’s Square to pray that God “saves them” and they receive help.

A Myanmar bishop recently said Francis will “most likely” visit Myanmar, while the Vatican has said only a pilgrimage is being considered.

Myanmar’s leader Aung San Suu Kyi has blasted the Rohingya militant attacks as a bid to undermine efforts to “build peace and harmony in Rakhine state.”

]]>http://dawatmedia.com/world-news/pope-laments-persecutions-of-rohingya-muslims-in-myanmar/feed/0Saudi Defene Minister insults Pakistan, calls them ‘salves country’http://dawatmedia.com/world-news/saudi-defene-minister-insults-pakistan-calls-them-salves-country/
http://dawatmedia.com/world-news/saudi-defene-minister-insults-pakistan-calls-them-salves-country/#respondSun, 11 Jun 2017 23:44:22 +0000http://dawatmedia.com/?p=910Saudi Arabia has always believed that it was the true land of Islam. While they consider other Muslim nations inferior, they also claim that they are the direct descendants of Muhammad. The prince of Saudi Muhammad Bin Salman has made a controversial statement humiliating Pakistan.

Muhammad Bin Suleiman believes that Pakisanis are the slaves of the Arabs. Suleiman is also the Defence Minister of Saudi Arabia. This statement proves that Saudi looks at every other Muslim country with the ‘converted-muslim’ country perspective. Muslims from India, Pakistan & Bangladesh are called ‘Hindu-muslims’ in Saudi.

They consider the Muslims from these 3 nations to have converted to Islam from Hinduism. The Indian, Pakistani & Bangaldesh Muslims are also called as “Al-Hindi-Muskeen” referring to them as second-grade Muslims. The differentiation in the system is an open fact. Arabi Muslims are preferred to “Hindu Muslims”, be it any job or top post.

The top posts are always reserved for the Saudi Arabians. The other Muslim nations and their citizens are considered to be inferior. Hence they are given inferior or insignificant posts in their army. Even Indian Muslims are a subject to this bias.

A Pakistani Journalist posted this letter, wherein the Saudi Defence Minister was referring to Pakistanis as slaves.

Tanveer Arain is a renowned Pakistani journalist who works for Pakistan’s English newspaper Dawn. In this Twitter post Tanveer Arain has quoted Saudi’s Defense Minister referring to Pakistan as a slave country. The Defence Minsiter called Pakistan a slave country that will continue to remain a slave of Saudi Arabia forever.

We must tell you that prior to the Suleiman kings, the Abdullah kings reigned in Saudi. But, the outlook was the same. The Abdullah Kings had said that “Indian & Pakistani Muslims grow beards to look good like us, but they look like they’ve come straight from the forest.”

The Prime Minister strongly condemned the recent spate of terrorist attacks in Kabul and other parts of Afghanistan, and expressed India’s sincere condolences on loss of hundreds of innocent lives.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday held talks with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and conveyed India’s firm support to the war-ravaged country in “resolutely and effectively” combating the challenge of terrorism. The Prime Minister strongly condemned the recent spate of terrorist attacks in Kabul and other parts of Afghanistan, and expressed India’s sincere condolences on loss of hundreds of innocent lives.

The meeting took place on the sidelines of the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. The two leaders discussed the current situation in Afghanistan with specific reference to fighting terrorism, and promoting peace, stability and reconciliation in the country.

“PM Modi highly appreciated the sacrifices made by the brave Afghan people and assured President Ghani that 1.25 billion Indians stood by the friendly people of Afghanistan in resolutely and effectively addressing the challenge of terrorism imposed on that country,” sources said.

Both leaders agreed that India’s entry into the SCO as a full member today would promote closer cooperation within the bloc, including in fighting terrorism, they said.

On April 27, Pakistani Minister of Defense Khawaja Asif met with his Russian counterpart Sergei Shoigu in Moscow. During their meeting, Asif called on Russia to lead the process of stabilizing Afghanistan. Asif also reiterated Shoigu’s argument that an effective counterterrorism strategy in Afghanistan can only be devised by consulting all participants in the conflict.

Even though the Moscow-Islamabad relationship has historically been plagued by distrust, Pakistan has emerged as a consistent advocate of an expanded Russian role in Afghanistan for two reasons. First, Pakistani policymakers have strongly supported Russia’s willingness to cooperate with the Taliban. Second, Russia has countered U.S. efforts to contain Pakistan’s influence in Afghanistan by diplomatically engaging Pakistan and accommodating Islamabad’s views on the stabilization of Afghanistan.

Why Pakistan and Russia Align over the Taliban’s Empowerment

The shift in Pakistan’s attitude toward Russia’s involvement in Afghanistan from indifference to vocal support has corresponded closely with Russia’s establishment of informal diplomatic ties with the Taliban. Since 2015, Russia has cooperated with the Taliban to weaken the Islamic State (ISIS) foothold in Afghanistan and deter the United States from maintaining a long-term military presence in the country.

The Pakistani government has strongly supported Russia’s outreach to the Taliban. On April 9, the special assistant on foreign affairs to the Pakistani Prime Minister, Syed Tariq Fatemi, claimed that Moscow is “positively” using its influence over the Taliban to encourage the Taliban to participate in peace talks on Afghanistan’s future.

Pakistan’s support for Russian engagement with the Taliban can be explained by two strategic imperatives. First, Pakistani and Russian policymakers have both concluded that their countries’ geopolitical influence over Afghanistan are maximized by a strengthened Taliban. Pakistan’s support for the Taliban is directly aimed at destabilizing Afghanistan, as Islamabad fears that a stable Afghanistan could forge a strategic partnership with India. Many Pakistani policymakers view India’s establishment of hegemony over Afghanistan as a potential security threat. This grim assessment is rooted in the popular assumption in Islamabad that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is an opportunist who has implemented a virulently anti-Pakistani foreign policy agenda for political gain.

Even though Russia maintains cordial relations with India, many regional analysts believe that Russia shares Pakistan’s desire for instability in Afghanistan. Indian academic Brahma Chellaney recently argued that Russia has collaborated with the Taliban to increase pressure on U.S. troops in Afghanistan, and to retaliate for U.S. support for Sunni rebels in Syria.

Second, Russia and Pakistan both support the Taliban as a bulwark against the Islamic State’s encroachment into Afghanistan. The February 17 Sufi shrine attack in Sehwan caused Pakistan to escalate its internal repression of ISIS affiliates and heightened fears of a spillover of ISIS from Afghanistan to Pakistan. As the Taliban has deployed elite fighters since late 2015 to vanquish ISIS, Pakistan has facilitated the Taliban’s recapture of territory in Afghanistan through material support and the provision of diplomatic recognition to the Taliban.

Even though Islamic State’s ability to threaten the security of the North Caucasus and Central Asia remains inconclusive, Russia has recently paid more attention to potential threat ISIS poses to these regions and its own security. Moscow’s December 2016 disclosure of communication with Taliban leaders on defeating ISIS revealed the synergy between Russian and Pakistani strategies toward Afghanistan. This synergy could have profound implications for Afghanistan’s long-term political trajectory, as the Taliban’s territorial sphere is larger than at any point since 2001.

Russia-Pakistan Diplomatic and Military Cooperation in Afghanistan

In addition to a shared desire to empower the Taliban, Pakistani officials have endorsed Russia’s preference for a multilateral solution to Afghanistan’s political crisis. In March 2017, Pakistan announced its decision to participate in a 12 party conference on Afghanistan hosted in Moscow, and praised Russia’s decision to support an Afghan-led peace process that engaged all warring factions at the bargaining table.

Even though Pakistan continues to be a major recipient of U.S. military aid, many members of the Pakistani military establishment supported Russia’s decision to exclude the United States from its Afghanistan peace talks. This support can be explained by the Pakistani military’s frustration with Washington’s unwillingness to consult Pakistan and its principal ally, China, on the stabilization of Afghanistan.

On March 5, a senior Pakistani military official told the U.K. Telegraph that Islamabad would support a Syria-style Russian counterterrorism operation in Afghanistan if U.S. efforts failed to ameliorate the country’s ongoing political turmoil. With Donald Trump having publicly criticized Pakistan’s role in destabilizing Afghanistan, many Pakistani policymakers believe that a Russian military intervention in Afghanistan will increase Islamabad’s influence over Afghanistan’s political trajectory.

The Kremlin has given credibility to these assumptions by describing Pakistan as a constructive counterterrorism partner in public statements and expanding bilateral military cooperation with Pakistan. On March 30, a Russian military delegation, accompanied by senior Pakistani army officers, made a historic visit to the conflict-ridden Pakistan-Afghanistan border areas of North and South Waziristan.

After this visit, the Pakistani military’s official media wing announced that Russia’s delegation had praised Pakistan’s efforts to reduce violence on Afghanistan’s borders. Russia’s September 2016 joint counterterrorism drill with Pakistan also demonstrated to the international community that Moscow is willing to consider Islamabad as a viable military partner, and suggests that Moscow would request Pakistani support if it intervened militarily in Afghanistan.

In addition to expressing solidarity with Pakistan, Russia has won Islamabad’s favor by actively engaging China in its efforts to resolve the Afghanistan crisis. The importance of Russia’s alignment with China in Afghanistan to Pakistani policymakers was recently confirmed by Pakistan’s former envoy to Russia Khalid Khattak, who argued that improved Pakistan-Russia relations were a direct consequence of Sino-Russian engagement on Afghanistan’s future.

Even though the motivations for Russia-Pakistan cooperation in Afghanistan occasionally differ, Islamabad’s increasingly vocal support for expanded Russian involvement in Afghanistan could profoundly impact Afghanistan’s long-term political trajectory. While Russia has yet to demonstrate a proclivity to intervene militarily in Afghanistan, the consolidation of the Islamabad-Moscow partnership poses a major challenge to U.S. policymakers seeking to unilaterally shape Afghanistan’s future political direction.

Samuel Ramani is a DPhil candidate in International Relations at St. Antony’s College, University of Oxford. He is also a journalist who contributes regularly to the Washington Post and Huffington Post. He can be followed on Twitter at samramani2 and on Facebook at Samuel Ramani.

]]>http://dawatmedia.com/asia/whats-driving-russia-pakistan-cooperation-on-afghanistan/feed/0‘It only takes one terrorist’: the Buddhist monk who reviles Myanmar’s Muslimshttp://dawatmedia.com/human-rights/it-only-takes-one-terrorist-the-buddhist-monk-who-reviles-myanmars-muslims/
http://dawatmedia.com/human-rights/it-only-takes-one-terrorist-the-buddhist-monk-who-reviles-myanmars-muslims/#respondSat, 13 May 2017 16:39:55 +0000http://dawatmedia.com/?p=656Once branded ‘the face of Buddhist terror’, Ashin Wirathu says his aim is to defend his people rather than incite religious hatred. Photograph: Thierry Falise/LightRocket/Getty Images

“Aung San Suu Kyii would like to help the Bengali, but I block her,” says Ashin Wirathu with some pride.

Branded the “Face of Buddhist Terror” by Time magazine, Wirathu has his own compound within the Masoeyein monastery in Mandalay. Before being offered a comfortable chair, visitors are greeted by a wall of bloody and gruesome photographs.

The pictures show machete-inflicted head wounds and severed limbs, disfigured faces and slashed bodies; Wirathu claims, without the slightest evidence, that the images are of Buddhists who were attacked by Muslims.

Next to the display, under which a monk is methodically sweeping the floor, stands a long table. The newspapers spread across it confirm that, for Wirathu’s followers, daily reading is a matter not just of spiritual texts but also of politics.

An orange-robed assistant adjusts a film camera on to a tripod; another brandishes a Nikon fitted with a large zoom lens. This interview will be carefully recorded by the monks in every way.

Wirathu is a man of unassuming features. His baby face belies the power he holds over nationalist activists in Myanmar as the spiritual leader of the 969 movement and head of Ma Ba Tha, the Organisation for the Protection of Race and Religion.

Wirathu perches on one of two teak armchairs; the wall to his left is covered with poster-sized photographs of him. He stands accused of inciting violence against the minority Muslim population in Myanmar, where racial and religious faultlines are increasingly exposed. In 2012, fuelled by his speeches, riots erupted in Meiktila, a city in central Myanmar, leaving a mosque burned to the ground and over a hundred dead.

In a soft and measured voice, Wirathu claims his speeches are neither “hate” nor racist, but serve merely as a warning to protect his people. What people make of those warnings is not his doing, he says calmly.

“I am defending my loved one,” he says, “like you would defend your loved one. I am only warning people about Muslims. Consider it like if you had a dog, that would bark at strangers coming to your house – it is to warn you. I am like that dog. I bark.”

Wirathu speaks of protecting his flock – “his beloved” – against what he perceives as danger. His denial of responsibility for the violence that has followed his sermons contrasts with eyewitness accounts of knife-wielding monks, denim jeans visible under their robes, leaving Wirathu’s monastery during the Mandalay riots of 2013.

Islam represents only 5% of Myanmar’s population of 54 million, but nationalists like Wirathu are pushing the idea that the faith puts Buddhism, and the very essence of Myanmar, in jeopardy. He claims the 1 million Rohingya Muslims living in precarious conditions in his country – described by human rights agencies as the most persecuted people on Earth – “don’t exist”.

“It only takes one terrorist to be amongst them,” he says. “Look at what has happened in the west. I do not want that to happen in my country. All I am doing is warning people to beware.”

Wirathu adds that if Donald Trump or Nigel Farage need some advice he will happily share his ideas. These include infiltrating the Facebook pages of Muslim groups, getting all Islamic schools to record their lessons, and government surveillance of internet activity, including emails. Wirathu claims he has his own army of individuals screening the net in Myanmar.

On the well-documented situation of the Rohingya in Rakhine state – where people have been left without access to medicines, aid, and basic human necessities such as clean water, sanitation and food – Wirathu is dismissive. The Rohingya have been mostly couped up in camps since the 2012 violence, and the silence of Myanmar’s leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy on their plight has attracted growing criticism.

Wirathu rejects the stateless Rohingya as illegal immigrants, a view echoed by the government. He will only discuss them if the description “Bangladeshis” is used, and even then Wirashu says the situation is not as it is portrayed.

“If it is true what [outsiders say], then I would offer help but I have visited the camps on many occasions. The aid agencies are refused access because they are using the refugees to fill their own pockets. Bangladeshis are posing for the media. They are not starving. They have so much food that they are selling it on in their shops – stealing even from their own.”

On the allegations that women have been abused and raped by the military, he laughed: “Impossible. Their bodies are too disgusting.”

There have been calls outside Myanmar for Aung San Suu Kyi to return her Nobel peace prize for her failure to tackle the situation with the refugees, which has broken her own promises on human rights.

Ashin Wirathu, centre, attends a meeting of Buddhist monks at a monastery outside Yangon in June 2013. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

Wirathu points to four soldiers marching through the compound, joking that they are there to arrest him, again. In 2003, he was sentenced to 25 years in prison for his anti-islamic sermons, but was released nine years later. In the event, the soldiers are there simply to make donations to his cause.

Wirathu is confident that the power of Ma Ba Tha is far from dwindling; that the organisation represents Myanmar Buddhism and its influence over the government is entrenched.

As a passing mosquito wins his empathy, he switches from his anti-Muslim rhetoric to explain: “I can teach you how to be a better Buddhist and not kill the mosquito. First, you must have compassion for the mosquito, imagine it to need you as it has no family to feed it. Second, you must try to put yourself in its place.”